RovyVon makes the neatest little lights out there, and this Angel Eyes E5 is a home run. It’s unassuming, but outright amazing. There’s a few models of this, but the one I have is the GITD body, with the UV light option — thus allowing for easy self-charging of the body to glow through the night.
Everyone needs one of these, but I guess I can tell you why…
Specs & Power
For what this is, this light has specs that give others a run for their money. It uses dual SST-20 4000k emitters at 95 CRI (assuming you correctly pick the 4000k option). It has aux lights on it, which in my case are two ‘warm white’ and one UV emitter. The UV is primarily for charging the glow in the dark body of the light.
Where things start to get even more interesting is the power supply. It has a built-in 330mAh Li-Po battery, which is charged via USB-C. And if you are thinking that doesn’t sound like much, you are right. Except that it also takes a AAA battery (Alkaline or NiMH or 10440). This means that you can manually swap between power sources — use the AAA slot as your primary and the built in battery as your backup power source should you run the other one dry.
You can charge it back up if you don’t have a reserve battery on you. Or grab a readily available AAA and keep going without need for a charger — very neat.
All of this is in an IPX6 water resistant package, 41 grams, and coming in at a small 2.6” x 1” x 0.5” size. Really solid stuff.
In Use
I bought this light thinking it might be something really neat to keep in a bag or sling, but what ended up happening is that I started using it all the time. It’s pretty amazing, and well thought out.
It’s also my favorite light to bring when I travel, because it gives you a lot of different options in a really small package all the while it is easy to keep powered no matter where your travels take you.
The glow in the dark body is fantastic, and even though the built in UV light charges it unevenly across the body, it overall works well enough that you can run it for 30 seconds before bed and still find the light in the dead of the early morning hours.
Operationally, the light is controlled through two buttons. There’s a lock out which works well. From there a single click of the top button will bring on the lights to the lowest mode. You need two extra clicks to get into mode cycling, but all in all it works really well and is excellent at insuring it always comes on to low.
The auxiliary lights are interesting. The UV light works well enough, and is hard enough to trigger that there’s no worry about it. It can charge the lume on other things like your watch or glow tape, but it’s rather diffuse so it’s not going to help you hunt a scorpion.
The two ‘warm white’ lights on the body are odd. They don’t seem high CRI, and the tint is pretty shit. They are perhaps the most disappointing part for me. They are also not diffuse enough, so they are less than perfect for reading. Generally this is a good light source if you want to use the light as a very tiny lantern, but not overly practical for anything else.
The clip actually works well, and despite it being a weird rectangle, it is fairly easy to carry with you. The near nothing weight helps there. Picture this about the size of a modern key fob for a car. A little large when you got a bunch of stuff in your pocket, but not hard to keep your grip on.
The worst design on the light is how you open and access the battery. You need to flip up a little clip on the side and rotate the head of the light. I find it not possible to do this with my finger nails alone, so either my nails are weak, or this is just not an ideal design. I tend to need to use another tool to open the light, even if that tool is just the edge of a hotel key card.
Overall
This is just a good light. There’s no way around it. At the retail price below $50, it is a bargain. I love using this light, and it goes with me on every trip now. My kids use it a bunch, and it has never left me feeling like I wish I had a larger light, or anything of that nature.
I am a very big fan.